From Vendor Promises to Proven Capabilities: How Hapimag Modernized its Controlling Landscape
About Hapimag
Hapimag is a leading Swiss holiday provider with a sharing-based business model, offering a diverse portfolio of resorts.
To make better strategic decisions and allocate resources more effectively, the company modernized its software landscape for planning and reporting. For this complex selection process, Hapimag required a neutral partner with deep market knowledge and a structured consulting approach. They chose BARC.
The project in detail
The challenge
The market for planning and reporting software is extensive and complex. Hapimag needed to look past the marketing materials of vendors to identify the true strengths and weaknesses of the available products. The company’s existing planning processes heavily relied on SAP BPC and spreadsheets. It lacked flexibility and required significant manual effort from the controlling team. The primary challenge was to find a modern software that would increase the efficiency of the planning process streamlining and automating it to a greater extent.
The aim
The project’s main goal was to select the most suitable software to meet Hapimag’s specific planning and reporting requirements. The initiative aimed to improve resource allocation, automate planning processes, and ensure precise planning based on resort occupancy forecasts. It also aimed to reduce the time required for the planning cycle.
BARC’s role was to:
- Provide a structured and neutral overview of the relevant market segment.
- Moderate the entire selection process, from requirements analysis, shortlist creation to the final decision informed by a proof-of-concept.
- Challenge vendors with critical questions to identify potential weaknesses.
- Ensure the final decision was based on a transparent, objective, and well-founded evaluation of the products’ actual capabilities.
Project phase 1
In close cooperation with the Hapimag team, BARC structured the selection process in several phases:
- Requirements analysis and shortlisting: The project began with a joint workshop to analyze the current situation and define the requirements for the new solution. Using this information, BARC created a longlist of potential vendors. This was then narrowed down to a shortlist of five candidates in a results workshop.
- Demos and proof-of-concept (PoC) preparation: The five shortlisted vendors presented their products in initial demos. BARC then supported Hapimag in developing a detailed PoC use case, which was provided to three final vendors.
- Proof-of-concept: The three finalists implemented a prototype based on Hapimag’s specifications. BARC actively participated in the final presentations, asked critical questions and moderated the evaluation based on a structured catalog of criteria.
Project phase 2
Key Takeaways:
- Project success was ensured thanks to BARC’s market expertise and its neutral advisory role.
- The multi-stage selection process was essential for making an evidence-based decision and led to important insights: For example, the PoC demonstrated that a predictive AI/ML approach would be too cost-intensive and that vendors do not yet offer this technology at the required scale. As a result, the process identified a statistical solution that delivers excellent results for Hapimag’s requirements.
- The BARC approach enabled Hapimag to decide and move ahead with confidence to replace an outdated system with software powering modern controlling approaches.
The result
The structured process, guided by BARC, led to a well-founded and confident decision for a new planning and reporting tool. Since the implementation, Hapimag reports that its budget discussions have become significantly more efficient. In addition, data entry is now more accurate. The entire planning and reporting landscape has been successfully migrated to the new platform.
Looking ahead:
Hapimag now plans to further expand its reporting capabilities using the new software. The goal is to establish the solution as the central tool for reporting and analysis across all corporate divisions, enabling detailed exploration through drill-downs and links between reports.
This enables the controlling team to act as a more effective business partner to the organization.
The challenge
The market for planning and reporting software is extensive and complex. Hapimag needed to look past the marketing materials of vendors to identify the true strengths and weaknesses of the available products. The company’s existing planning processes heavily relied on SAP BPC and spreadsheets. It lacked flexibility and required significant manual effort from the controlling team. The primary challenge was to find a modern software that would increase the efficiency of the planning process streamlining and automating it to a greater extent.
The aim
The project’s main goal was to select the most suitable software to meet Hapimag’s specific planning and reporting requirements. The initiative aimed to improve resource allocation, automate planning processes, and ensure precise planning based on resort occupancy forecasts. It also aimed to reduce the time required for the planning cycle.
BARC’s role was to:
- Provide a structured and neutral overview of the relevant market segment.
- Moderate the entire selection process, from requirements analysis, shortlist creation to the final decision informed by a proof-of-concept.
- Challenge vendors with critical questions to identify potential weaknesses.
- Ensure the final decision was based on a transparent, objective, and well-founded evaluation of the products’ actual capabilities.
Project phase
In close cooperation with the Hapimag team, BARC structured the selection process in several phases:
- Requirements analysis and shortlisting: The project began with a joint workshop to analyze the current situation and define the requirements for the new solution. Using this information, BARC created a longlist of potential vendors. This was then narrowed down to a shortlist of five candidates in a results workshop.
- Demos and proof-of-concept (PoC) preparation: The five shortlisted vendors presented their products in initial demos. BARC then supported Hapimag in developing a detailed PoC use case, which was provided to three final vendors.
- Proof-of-concept: The three finalists implemented a prototype based on Hapimag’s specifications. BARC actively participated in the final presentations, asked critical questions and moderated the evaluation based on a structured catalog of criteria.
The result
The structured process, guided by BARC, led to a well-founded and confident decision for a new planning and reporting tool. Since the implementation, Hapimag reports that its budget discussions have become significantly more efficient. In addition, data entry is now more accurate. The entire planning and reporting landscape has been successfully migrated to the new platform.
Looking ahead:
Hapimag now plans to further expand its reporting capabilities using the new software. The goal is to establish the solution as the central tool for reporting and analysis across all corporate divisions, enabling detailed exploration through drill-downs and links between reports.
This enables the controlling team to act as a more effective business partner to the organization.
I would definitely recommend BARC. They supported us, not only in creating the shortlist but especially in the preparation and evaluation of the PoC. This allowed us to clarify the most important points and, as a result, make a better decision.
José Ferreira da Cruz
Head of Controlling, Hapimag
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